Keep Reaching

2. The Preparation

Ariana dreaded her next show. Ricky always saw right through her if she was worried or her nerves were shot, and now she had to "break up" with him. Scooter, that dick. She should've dropped Scooter but she couldn't afford stirring up more insane headlines and looking even more like a diva.

"Hey, babe," she said, as she walked onto the stage for rehearsal.

"Hey, beautiful," he told her, kissing her in the cheek. "What's up?"

"Nothing," she said, sighing inwardly. Maybe she should've started spouting off about moonlight tea and purple heart emojis to throw him off but, in all honesty, she wasn't in the mood. "Let's practice. C'mon."

"Absolutely," he said.

They went through half of her set list for the show and then took a quick break. "Is something wrong?" Ricky asked her as she drank someone water.

"Nah," she said. "Just tired."

"You should get more sleep," he said, worriedly. "I don't want you getting sick again and having to cancel more shows."

"It's fine," she said, annoyed. "I have vagina vocal cords and everything. You know what I mean? I'll make it."

"Yeah," he said, smiling. "That's my moonlight princess." He kissed the top of her head and went back to the rest of the dancers.

They finished the rest of the songs and Ariana went backstage to get started changing into her show outfits as the crowd began to stream in. As she tied her hair back and touched up her eyebrows and eyelashes so that they looked better than ever, she began to ponder exactly how she would break up with Ricky. Admittedly, it wouldn't be all that hard...he was sort of a fling. She liked him, for sure, but leaving him wasn't exactly a challenge.

Quickly, she pulled out her phone and called up Scooter. "Hey," she whispered. "I can't break up with Ricky. Not just because he's my boyfriend, because I'm on tour. He's my dancer. It's ridiculous."

"It's not," Scooter said. "Just say you realized that you were overstepping your work boundaries or something. And that it wasn't working out. Ariana, you live for the romance movies. Haven't you watched a single break up?"

"You're no help," she grumbled. Frustrated, she hung up. She smoothed out her skirt and, taking one last glance at herself in the mirror, headed off to the stage entrance.

Flawlessly, she went through all of her choreo and tracks. She blew the crowd one last kiss and, tossing her hair back, waved goodbye to the crowd. "I love you babes!" she shouted. "See ya soon!"

As soon as she exited the stage and sat herself down in a chair, her phone rang again. Shrieking frustratedly, she picked it up, knowing whose voice she would hear. "What do you want now?" she hissed through clenched teeth.

With a soothing tone, Scooter said, "Has it been done yet?"

Shutting her eyes, she said, "If you want, I'll unfollow him on Instagram..."

"Already been done," he said without a pause. "And his family. We'll take care of all the extra stuff...all you have to do is physically remove him from your life. The tour is nearly over, anyhow. You need to keep things professional."

"Justin is my co-worker too!" she exclaimed. Under her breath, she muttered, "Unfortunately."

"He's one of your peers," he corrected. "And a peer is a synonym for a student, and wouldn't you date one of your fellow students?"

"Screw you," Ariana told him. "Don't you have a kid's face to be hiding? What's with that, anyways?" she taunted, referring to how Scooter and his wife never showed their child's face in any of their public pictures.

"That has zero correlation," he said crisply. "And I'll remind you one more time: break up with Ricky. If I have to, I'll do it for you."

"Bit-" Ariana started, but Scooter had already hung up.

Ricky walked in, perfectly on time. A second earlier, and her plans for a subtle breakup would've gone down the drain. "What's up?" he said casually. "Great show, by the way."

"I hope you choke on that moonlight tea, bae," she said to herself. Her head down, she spoke louder, to Ricky. "I can feel that something bad is gonna happen."

"Nah, I don't think so. And even if something do, you my girl, and I'll be love you either way."

"I can feel it in my hip bone."

He chuckled. "How?"

She lifted her shoulders and stared at herself in the mirror. "These hips don't lie," she said.

-

"Justin," Scooter said through the phone, "Ariana is already on board with the plan. Now it's all you."

"Don't lie," Justin replied easily.

"What do you mean?" Scooter tried at a corny joke to throw Justin off.

"You mean the single that debuted at #1 WITHOUT the help of Ariana?"

"No, I mean the song that you and Ariana made a remix of."

Justin groaned. "But-"

"But nothing. You and Ariana have a date at the ice rink next week Thursday. I expect both of you to hold hands, fall down occasionally, and pick each other up when you do."

"That's so predictable."

"So will your high sales be if you and Ariana pull this off successfully. Say goodbye to the single life," Scooter said.

"And then say hello from the other side?"

"No," Scooter said simply. "We don't speak about Adele here. Her sales are higher than you and Ariana's combined. My self-esteem is low enough." Without a breath, he hung up.